If there’s one thing I’ll remember the Bush administration for it’s their spin…… I really can’t remember when I’ve heard quite so much of it quite so often; the WMD spin, the spin used to keep Americans afraid ever vigilant, the progress in Iraq spin, the progress in Afghanistan spin, the Saddam Hussein spin, the Osama bin Laden spin, and, of course, who could ever forget the Abu Grabu torture and abuse spin.

Until recently the Bush administration didn’t consider it to be real torture unless internal organs failed, some bodily function was impaired, or the person died - apparently everything else, including what the US military and intelligence folk engaged in at Abu Grabu, Camp Gitmo, and other places around the world, was simple abuse.

Needless to say that position resulted in more than a little, very justified, criticism.

That position has now been revised to

…..torture may consist of acts that fall short of provoking excruciating and agonizing pain and thus may include mere physical suffering or lasting mental anguish.

Read that statement a few times and think about it, how much different is it than their last position? What does “mere physical suffering” mean? A good old fashioned beating would cause physical suffering, but as long as the person administering the beating was compassionate enough not to make it an excruciating beating it’s only abuse…. as is psychological and mental torture.

An empty gun to the head so the person only thinks they are going to be shot is all good because lasting mental anguish is not torture. And more importantly, as far as the Bush administration is concerned, this

and practices like it, is not torture…. at least as far as America is concerned.

The rest of the civilized world may not agree, but since we just a bunch of whining foreigners with chips on our shoulders who hate America and George Bush that really doesn’t matter very much.